When I woke, I was laying on my side on a cool, hard surface, like polished glass. It felt like I was being licked on my cheek by some sort of animal.
I opened my eyes, and saw an unlikely scene. Before me, and madly wagging his little tail, was a small black terrier. He stepped from paw to paw, and seemed enormously excited to see me. The dog let out a peculiarly squeaky bark, and cocked his bushy head. This dog reminded me of my little black dog from when I was a kid; his name was Wolfie. He had run away when I was ten, but I had always remembered that squeaky distinct bark.
"Wolfie?" I rasped, incredulous. He barked again. My voice sounded strangely squeaky too, but I didn't care. I got to see my best childhood buddy again! "What are you doing here, boy?"
I pulled myself into a sitting position, and found that my body felt different. Instead of my dark slacks and coat, I was wearing a small plain dress with silvery slippers. I looked at my arms, and found them to be that of a small girl, instead of a young woman. Observing myself, I felt as if I was about ten years old again. The dog barked, and began to jump on me as I sat on the floor, licking my face as if he was thrilled to see me.
"Where are we, buddy?" I asked, looking around. I stood up, and tried to get a look at the place I found myself in. As my eyes adjusted, I saw that the floor here was a glassy, crystalline material that reflected a deep cobalt in dim white light. The atmosphere felt similar to being in an aquarium, minus all the fish and water. The room I was in was actually a hallway that stretched in two endless directions, with an arced ceiling like that of an old church. The air was clean, but there was a light breeze that smelled faintly of old books, like a library. This must be a dream, of course, I rationalized. Wolfie sat at my feet, watching me happily.
"A dream? Well, all things are dreams and facets of creation, so I suppose you'd be right there..." a disembodied male voice rang through the halls, coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. I swung my head around, searching for the voice, and found that my hair had been loosely braided. As I searched one direction of the endless blue hall, I felt a tap at my back. I swirled around and jumped backwards at what I saw.
I looked up at a tall, unnaturally pale man who would have been taller than me if I had been in my normal body by about a head. A dark, perfect suit was immaculately tailored to his lithe body. His hair was white blond and tousled, and moved as if it were water in an unknown breeze. His eyes were luminous gold, and had a predatory quality to them, like a wolf in firelight. It made him look both attractive and terrifying. He smiled, as if hearing me, revealing pointed canines and a mischievous quality.
"Why, you flatter me! I do so like politeness. You're already off to a good start! Now here, let me fix your little height problem you have in that body for now. Take whatever form you want later, but we need to have an adult form for an adult conversation now, I think."
With a dismissive wave of his finger, I found myself inside my adult body again, looking at the stranger at closer to eye level. The clothes immediately changed with me. The sensation of my body rapidly transforming was incredibly disconcerting, and I jumped.
"What? W-who are you?" I stammered, taking a step back. The man remained smiling where he was standing. I now noticed that he was levitating a few inches off the ground, and his clothes ruffled in a gentle non-existent breeze. I heard Wolfie whine nervously at my feet. I reached down and picked him up.
"My dear, I believe you know who I am already. We've already been acquainted," he said, amused. The stranger's voice was utterly inhuman, reaching both high and low tones while maintaining a strange polyphony, as if he spoke in a few voices at one time. But, one part of him was familiar. He resembled a man I had met very recently. The blond stranger at my gallery opening, the one who had jostled Glenn into dropping my whiskey. This guy looked like an unearthly alien version of him. He also reminded me uncannily of a character in a story I had written, right down to how I had described him. I remember wondering about that at the gallery too! The "Zac" character! The wandering chaos entity...
"Y-you're an avatar of change?" I managed to stammer out. Was I actually dreaming my silly fan fic? Thank goodness this was a dream or I'd be in real trouble.
The scent of the air changed, notes of ozone mixing repulsively with the library books, and a small wind picked up. I felt Wolfie whine again in my arms, and I could tell the little dog was shivering. This man had a terrifying presence. As I was standing, he reached out with a white hand, and caressed a ringlet of hair that had come loose from my braids. At his touch, the curl turned white, and he let it fall. He sighed dramatically.
"Not simply an avatar, my dear. But, I digress from my main reason for appearing to you now. I'm here to impart some unfortunate news," he said, his voice dancing like ballet in the endless blue halls. This had so far been the most vivid dream I had ever had; it was stunning! I would have to remember this when I woke up. The strange tall man smiled knowingly. "This is no conventional dream, as you were thinking. I have finally you in my grasp, my scrappy little psyker. After years of repeated intrusions into my realm, stealing secrets that weren't yours, I've caught you in my net."
I continued to hold Wolfie, beginning to feel real fear worm into my heart. This is just a dream, dummy. Come on.
"Oh, I suppose we need formalities here," he cleared his throat. "Please allow me to formally introduce myself. I have many names, but you may know me as the Lord of Change, the Architect of Fate, and most commonly..." he let a pause drag out and looked at me, expectantly.
"You're Tzeentch," I replied, careful to not mispronounce it. Oh neat, a 40k dream!
"Why yes! Oh so very clever! And yes again, very neat!" he said, a slight edge of sarcasm in his alien voice. "Well, I don't mean to disparage you, really. I have my eye on you, and I find you extremely interesting, despite your transgressions. In fact, even your transgressions are interesting."
He snapped his fingers, and in midair, a comically long scroll appeared in his hands. He appeared to peruse through lists of what I assumed where things I had done "wrong" in my lifetime with bemusement. "This scroll here, it is kept in my Hidden Library. It bears witness to all your little misdeeds, your repeated intrusions. You are quite the gossip point between my bookkeepers, I dare say," He made a musing sound as he continued to read the record. "Psykers in your age are usually far weaker and get into far more trouble, but you have an knack for staying out of it. Well, present situation of course exempt. You're certainly in a lot of trouble now!"
I was uncomfortable, and didn't know what to say. What could someone say to Tzeentch as he stood next to you complaining about the things you did to upset him? "Well, I'm not a psyker, so that's wrong," I tried to correct at least.
"I'll be the judge of that, and yes, you are. One of only a few in your guttering little primitive hellscape of a Materium," he said, his golden eyes not leaving the scroll. The god then rolled the paper up once again as it vanished into smoke that smelled of birthday cake. "Seems you're in denial, perhaps as a defense mechanism. All while you've been intruding in my realm, my house, my reality. Not very polite, my dear."
I must have appeared confused, so he began to explain: "Having the nasty little habit of subconsciously projecting yourself into my realm when dreaming still counts as an intrusion. Stealing dreams is stealing secrets from me. Ignorance is no excuse, little one."
And if you weren't a psyker, you could not have understood the words I spoke to you in the gallery, I felt the words instead of hearing them. I jumped and fell back in surprise, causing the god to chuckle and shake his head.
"What do you want from me?" My rational mind rebelled against this, so I tried to make sense of what was becoming a nightmare.
"To get you home, of course! You're in a spot of trouble where your body is presently. So very sick! I can put the you here back into your body in your Materium, and heal it. You can live again and have more failed gallery shows while people try to murder you, if that's what you want. However, it takes a bit of effort on my part, and a lot of hope on your part!"
The air shifted again, and I could smell both gunpowder and honey. "To be truthful, for you it could be much worse. Dying with my favor is better than dying without it! You really are fun!"
"Dying? I'm not dead!"
"Oh no, not yet! As I said, your body is currently gravely ill. Your nervous system has been driven into haywire with paralysis sneaking into your limbs as your fleshy shell attempts to fight off a foreign toxin. But as I said earlier, your soul stands at the brink of life and death, at the threshold of wonders where new possibility present themselves. You can thank Nurgle for that irritating little development, by the way," Tzeentch scoffed, and in his hands appeared a small glass with an amber liquid. "You're lucky I found you when I did. If you had ingested one more sip of that cursed whiskey, you'd be dead already!"
I suddenly recalled the incident at the gallery. The neckbeard with the flask! Glenn! That guy was...
"...a servant of my enemy, yes. Oh, don't look so surprised! My siblings and I work through many realities, your world included," he said as though effortlessly reading every thought as I had it, which he probably was. He took a sip of his drink. "Would you care for one? 'Promise this one won't kill you," he smiled menacingly.
"No, no," I shook my head, disbelieving. I placed Wolfie down on the floor, and this time, I was the one trembling. Why would anyone want to murder me? Was this a near death experience? "I have to get back," I said, trying to be assertive against the eldritch horror in a humanoid form next to me. "Please send me back!"
"Maybe you don't understand, mortal. I said I could send you back, and that I would like that, not that I definitely would."
"But-"
"Haven't you noticed where you are, my dear?" he motioned grandly to the great blue crystal halls around us. As if responding to his gesture, the halls sparkled brilliantly for a few moments, and I could see shadows of unknown moving tentacled things writhing in the walls. "This is my domain. You are in my Crystal Labyrinth. Now, I can't very well be unfair to all the other creatures who find themselves lost in here for eternity, no," As to punctuate what the god said, I could hear faint screams and maddening laughter.
The scent in the air shifted ominously to blood, tears, and terror as the god beside me smiled widely.
"But don't worry, you'll pull through if you make the right choices, choose the right paths. Your situation is quite dire, which is why you can't simply wake up. You are ready to be eaten by death itself, but look at you, such a fighter filled with hope! You're impressing people all over the world every second of life you remain alive! The hope exuded from those people is rare and delicious, and I'm enjoying it!" He lashed a silver tongue across his lips.
My thoughts raced. The suicide notes I had discovered just earlier that day! I didn't write them! Someone did want me dead, and I had been poisoned! This wasn't a dream; it really was a near death experience, I thought in absolute horror.
I straightened up, trying to be brave. This couldn't be real, but I still needed to go back and call an ambulance! Whatever all this was needed to stop! This was ridiculous and I needed to wake up. "I have to get back! I have to call the police!" I said in alarm. The air smelled of ketones and coppery blood.
I tried to step backward, to go anywhere but here, but found myself unable to move with another dismissive gesture by the god.
"Now, I did tell you I had noticed you breaking into my domain many times. Stealing my secrets from my guardians, and harassing the horrors who had only tried to talk to you! Running off without saying goodbye, just like that! Rude! But, as you have noticed, I do like you, and many threads of fate align to your continued existence in your world. You're also one of the few psykers that world has, my prized little pet."
"This is all bullshit! I'm not a psyker and I have t-" My mouth was glued shut as Tzeentch raised a finger and made a cutting motion. The scent in the air ominously shifted to that of brimstone and fire. Around me, souls and shapes flickered in the walls of the Crystal Labyrinth. Dimly, I registered that Wolfie was barking madly at the scene.
The god slowly floated to me as I frantically clutched at my sealed mouth. His expression was severe as he looked down on me, golden eyes gleaming with feral magic. He began again in a throaty whisper, "I'm willing to ignore your transgressions if you follow the rules this time. You're the keystone of a structure in a grand design that you can't even see yet, dearest. You straddle the crossroads of humanity's fate," his fingers reached for the loose lock of hair he had touched before, and pulled me even closer to his face. It was incredibly threatening, but I still could not move. His smile had returned as he spoke, "That you continue to remain willfully ignorant of this is an insult to all knowledge and progress, in both the Materium and in here. And you steal from me! How lucky you are that I'm giving you an opportunity to escape despite your audacity. It is because I enjoy you, and you are very entertaining." He breathed, and as the wind of his breath reached me, the world broke.
I was suddenly before a impossibly huge sapphire-skinned leviathan floating cross legged in a swirling multicolored aether thick with light and electricity. A thin black pseudopod bound me around my waist, and held me aloft, much like a spider holding a small insect by a thread before eating it. Two impossibly long tentacles slowly swayed over its sunken shoulders, and a massive central face with swirling opal eyes grinned with billions of thin sharp teeth many times my height. Countless babbling faces leered at me in the creature's shifting skin, ever changing and ever moving. When it spoke again, it spoke in a trillion voices from all of its gibbering faces. "You must find your own way home. Succeed, and you will be free. Fail, and you belong to me. Forever!"
The black pseudopod holding me began to unwind, and to my horror, I saw that there was no discernable ground below me. I struggled and began to panic. "No, no!" I screamed. My terror was answered with the laughter of a trillion mad voices as I fell from the sky, and into hell.